1840s Development
of Brighton as a popular holiday resort. A cheap day return from London
cost 8 shillings (40p).

1841 Thomas
Cook runs his first trip, hiring a train to take 500 people from Leicester
to Loughborough.

1844 The
Railway Act compels all railway companies to run at least one train
a day that stops at all stations and charges a fare of no more than
one penny a mile.

1846 The
first All England Cricket Eleven play.

1850 Factory
Act. All mills now stopped working at 2pm on a Saturday. This is the
start of Saturday afternoons becoming the main time for sport. King's
Cross Station opened, in time for the Great Exhibition.

1851 Many
of the visitors to the Great Exhibition travel there on Thomas Cook
excursions.

1855 Thomas
Cook organises his first trip abroad to the International Exhibition
in Paris.

1861 First
Open Golf Championship held.

1863 Football
Association founded.

1865 The
Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge Universities becomes an annual
event.

1871 Bank
Holidays Act gives people who worked in banks specific days off. This
idea quickly spread, giving many workers more time for holidays and
leisure activities.

1872 A cup
tournament (the FA cup) was held for all clubs that used the FA's rules.

1873 Railway
men working for the Great Northern Railway company become the first
working men to be given regular holidays with pay.

1880's Thomas
Cook and Sons begin to own hotels as well as organise trips. They began
to own and manage hotels in Egypt because local ones were supposed to
be unhygienic!